MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
UK considered third best country in the world despite Brexit anxieties
Britain has retained its spot as third best country in the world despite anxieties over Brexit, a global survey suggests. Switzerland took first place followed by Canada and the UK, the survey by US News & World Report, Y&R’s BAV Consulting and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania shows. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesWhat culture has Switzerland or Canada contributed...?
Mar 10th, 2017 - 12:21 am - Link - Report abuse -4...and what power or influence...?
wee man voice,
Mar 10th, 2017 - 12:50 am - Link - Report abuse +1Of course, it's not really up to you.
Got any more boring little bon mots for us?
What a ridiculous survey no scientific basis at all.
Mar 10th, 2017 - 01:51 am - Link - Report abuse -3It is a well known effect that when a person learns a foreign language, their level of appreciation of the cultural achievements of in that language increases tremendously versus the time before they learned to speak that language. BUT, also the overestimation of the worth of that culture increases. It's called the “resident effect”, and it is related to the Stockholm effect. Expats go to live to other countries and see all the positives in their new country for a period of time, while they see all the negatives of the country they left.
So of course the “worldwide” survey will rate English language literature highly, because the survey is tainted to begin with. Not only are they overestimating the English language because of the Resident Effect, but more basically have never been exposed to other literature in other languages period. No exposure to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Victor Hugo, 鲁迅, Paulo Coelho, Dante Alighieri, Gabriela Mistral, Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й, etc, etc... I'm sure many thing J.K Rowling is one of the Greats of World Literature hahahahaha.
Useless survey with tainted subjects, and the makers of the survey are Anglo?
lol, about as useful as a survey on approval ratings of Kim Jong-Un from the North Korean media.
Argentina was #42 on the list, behind Brazil and Chile.
Mar 10th, 2017 - 06:17 am - Link - Report abuse 0Yeah Troy I do...
Mar 10th, 2017 - 10:06 am - Link - Report abuse 0Posting under two different names just makes you twice the dickhead you already are...
...and twice the drivel...
Troll boy
Mar 10th, 2017 - 10:15 am - Link - Report abuse +1Of course, a person like yourself who has traveled extensively should be listened to and respected for their incisive opinion on this subject.
You pick out one aspect of the survey and apply it to all it's contents. Sloppy thinking !
If you bothered to look, I think that you would find that “English ” authors are translated into dozens of foreign languages. Their popularity does not come from reading the books in English.
Many of the “foreign” authors you quote are available in English translations and are known to the reading public. Many are taught in secondary education - or were in my day.
I have read Hugo, in French as part of my education. Also Greek classics -TRANSLATED !
As you seem to have no job or need for one, maybe you can afford the luxury of self indulgence to learn various languages and read literature in it's native form.
The rest of us have ADULT responsibilities and little or no time to be self-indulgent.
Or maybe you are just a jealous little Troll.
42? That high??? I thought that was the answer to life and everything? Evidently not...
Mar 10th, 2017 - 10:25 am - Link - Report abuse 0These things are always subjective. My opinion after visiting 45 other countries is that England is number one for all its faults. But, I know I am biased. :-)
As for Nostrils he has never been abroad, so what's his opinion worth - diddly squat!
@Voice
Mar 10th, 2017 - 11:01 am - Link - Report abuse 0Culture includes things like Nobel prize winners and patents, which Switzerland scores highly on. And a lot of international institutions are based in Switzerland, plus the Red Cross and Geneva Conventions have had a big positive effect on the world.
Canada was number one for quality of life and scores highly on education and international alliances. It also does well on citizenship and business and entrepreneurship.
Also Brazil was first for 'Adventure' whatever that is.
There were only 80 countries ranked, but no reason Argentina should be lower, there are a lot of worse places.
Canada - Cirque du Soliel? Celine Dion, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Bryan Adams, Michael Bublé. Swiss - Einstien for a start....
Mar 10th, 2017 - 11:35 am - Link - Report abuse 0The Canucks are quite good on the bagpipes too due to the Scottish exodus to Nova Scotia.
The Voice,
Mar 10th, 2017 - 02:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Don't forget Lacrosse, and Ice Hockey, known locally as “Hockey”.
Despite all the talk of separation and that silly FLQ business, with the BNA Act, having two official languages, a distinct society clause in the Constitution, and other initiatives, the French and English Canadians live fairly harmoniously and respect each other's cultures.
The Canadians do indeed have their own contemporary cuisine which is becoming popular across North America and exported further abroad. The English Canadians have Tim Horton's Coffee (recently snapped up by a US company) and the French Canadians have poutine.
Let's not forget Buffy St. Marie OC , an indigenous singing sensation who “made it” in the White Man's society, received 2 JUNO awards in 2016, and a humanitarian award in 2017.
http://junoawards.ca/buffy-sainte-marie-honoured-2017-allan-waters-humanitarian-award/
Let's not forget taking in Afghan and Mexican refugees from Trump's America, ground-breaking Cancer Research by UBC, and that Penicillin thingy developed by Banting and Best at the University of Toronto.
I probably missed a few things, “voice”.
It's likely you can find something to be mealy-mouthed about, but remember, Canada gave your countryman Enrique a home when he was a “Political Refugee”
(and Economic Refugee) in the 70's.
The fact remains that many people learn English as a second language and thus are exposed in their education and later in their independent usage to English literature, of course they will think “highly” of it, because they feel closer to it than to say, literature in Farsi.
Mar 10th, 2017 - 03:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0So the survey IS in fact useless because of the resident effect. In fact the resident effect also is visible in other areas: has it not ever happened to you all that women (or men), that you would not have found attractive or interesting out in the street, BECOME attractive or interesting when you work in close contact with them over a period of time (office, school, extended vacation, etc)?
Don't underestimate that psychological effect.
I am not saying English literature is bad (though I do believe anything in English after the 1970 is commercialized garbage not worth a minute of anyone's time). It is quite good with really influencial writers like Jack London, Orwell, Twain, Jane Austen, etc... but it is overestimated and it is NOT better than French, Italian, German, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Indian, Arabic, Mexican, Braizilian, or Chilean literature.
Yes, Argentine literature sucks, it does not exist. I will admit that.
I did forget Buffy. Didn't realise she was a Canadian native Indian. But, I do have one of her records.
Mar 10th, 2017 - 03:57 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Nostrils, I just about to read Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa. So we do read some of the little literature that comes from your part of the world. Nostromo?
Mario Vargas Llosa is Peruvian, not Argentine. We have no literature.
Mar 10th, 2017 - 04:44 pm - Link - Report abuse -2Unlike what you all claim, because none of you are that smart really, I am not a blind nationalist. I have since my first day here always said:
1. the Falklands are British
2. Argentina's economy is finished.
3. Argentina is in an irreversible decline because of history (no country is good for ever)
4. Argentina's education is a disgrace, and people don't educate themselves
5. I heavily criticized F. de Kirchner
6. I heavily criticize Macri
Are those the traits of a blind nationalist? The problem is YOU ALL are the blind nationalists, ANGLO SUPREMACISTS, you brook no criticism of your countries or cultures, you believe yourself superior and no one else worth a glance from you. So I take you all to task for that laughable, ridiculous posture by telling you the truth of the reality of the UK, USA, Anglos, etc, and you don't like it too much.
Too bad.
@Trollface
Mar 10th, 2017 - 05:01 pm - Link - Report abuse +1You're probably right that English literature is highly regarded at least partly because people have more exposure to it, but the survey is also about cultural influence. More exposure means more influence; it's not fair but it's true.
And your expressed hatred of all foreigners and claims that the whole world hates Argentina make you a blind nationalist of a different kind.
“none of you are that smart really,”-possibly correct BUT neither are you.
Mar 10th, 2017 - 05:02 pm - Link - Report abuse +2Bigoted and histrionic are nearer the mark in your case.
No country is in irreversible decline unless the population wish it so.
So stop playing the martyr card and help to improve the society in which you live.
“So I take you all to task for that laughable, ridiculous posture by telling you the truth of the reality of the UK, USA, Anglos, etc, and you don't like it too much.”
No, to paraphrase Trump's spokesman, you peddle the alternative truth.
As to not liking it, I think that we pay no real attention to you apart from treating your comments as a joke and replying correspondingly.
Your credibility on here must be about 1%.
Nostrils I visited Vargas's library in Lima, have you? I was merely pointing out that SA has at least one Nobel Prize winning author... Dumbkopf!
Mar 10th, 2017 - 05:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Oh, I forgot, you do everything on the internet don't you? Does that include having sex?
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